Education and Training
Mar. 2022 – present Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor: Prof. T. Alan Hatton
Aug. 2021 – Feb. 2022 Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Advisor: Prof. Guihua Yu
Aug. 2017 – Jul. 2021 Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering Program, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
Committee: Prof. Guihua Yu, Prof. Keith P. Johnston, Prof. Wei Li, Prof. Yuebing Zheng
Thesis: Materials design and surface engineering of functional hydrogels for solar desalination and water purification (Link)
Sep. 2012 – Jun. 2017 M.S & B.S in Chemical Engineering, Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego
Other Research Experiences
Jan. 2017 – Jun. 2017 Research Assistant, University of California San Diego (Prof. Marc A. Meyers)
Sep. 2015 – Jun. 2016 Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of California San Diego (Prof. David P. Fenning)
Jun. 2015 – Aug. 2015 Summer Research Internship, California Institute of Technology (Prof. Michael R. Hoffmann)
Jun. 2012 – Aug. 2012 & Jun. 2013 – Sept. 2013 Summer Research Internship, Xi’an Jiaotong University (Prof. Lionel Vayssieres and Prof. Shaohua Shen)
Teaching Experiences
Spring 2023 Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program, Teaching + Learning Lab, MIT
2017 – 2018 Teaching Assistant (Materials Engineering Lab, ME 134L), UT Austin
2016 – 2017 Reader (Separation Process, CENG 122), UC San Diego
Selected Awards and Honors
2023 ACS PMSE Future Faculty Award (PMSE blog)
2023 Forbes 30 under 30 - Science, North America (MIT Alumni; UT TMI News; Forbes Profile)
2022 Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford
2022 Rising Stars in Chemical Engineering, MIT
2021 MSE Graduate Student Poster Award, UT Austin
2020 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad
2020 Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award (MRS website; UT TMI News)
2020 Professional Development Award, UT Austin
2020 ME Graduate Student Poster Award, UT Austin
2019 1st Place in Longhorn Student Poster Contest, UT Energy Institute (UT TMI News)
2017 George J. Heuer, Jr. Ph.D. Endowed Graduate Fellowship, Cockrell School of Engineering, UT Austin
Services
Journal reviewer for Nature Sustainability, Nature Catalysis, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Nano, Progress in Materials Science, ACS Materials Letters, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Acta Biomaterialia, ACS Applied Nano Materials, ACS Applied Polymer Materials, One Earth, ChemSusChem, ACS Omega, Journal of Photonics for Energy, Journal of Electronic Materials, etc.